


Precious Things

by spread_my_wings



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Fear gas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 05:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12074532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spread_my_wings/pseuds/spread_my_wings
Summary: The words aren't impossible to say, but that doesn't mean they are easy. What does it take to get Damian to admit someone is precious to him?





	Precious Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DawnsEternalLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/gifts).
  * Inspired by [To Pass Through This Night](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11415939) by [DawnsEternalLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight). 



The night had begun as it always did. Dick had been joking, trying to lighten the tension as the final touches appeared on their uniforms. Equipment had been given final inspections. Masks and cowls had been donned. Gloves had been pulled on. Familiar. Ritual. And his banter had kept it from becoming too much, too serious.

It was serious, now, with no touch of laughter to ease it. 

Gasps and choked off cries just made it worse.

Alfred had tried to send Damian away, but he'd refused. Politely. 

The boy hadn't worried about manners when his father had tried to carry him away to bed. He'd landed a punch, and red dripped, stained the bat on the armored chestplate as Bruce dabbed at his streaming nose.. 

Bruce had turned, a muscle in his jaw working. "Get some sleep."

No one slept that night.

Exhaustion finally compelled all of them to nap in fits and starts. Damian's place of choice was curled in a chair, grasping onto Dick's hand like a lifeline, waking every time the thrashing or coughing began again. 

Watching him cough and choke against the water he'd swallowed was bad enough, but Damian couldn't bear to see the exhaustion and pain already etched deep into Dick's features as the toxin denied any hope of rest even when he could manage to breathe more easily. They could only wait and watch and continually adjust the drugs fighting the worst of his symptoms. 

Damian's somewhat stoic resolve broke somewhere during the third night. Dick's voice was hoarse and barely recognizable as his own, but the words sent a chill through him as cold as the frigid waters of Gotham Harbor Dick had fallen into after succumbing to fear gas. Damian listened, still and small, hearing his own name come from lips cracked and bleeding. "We were the best, Damian. Stay with me... Please... No! Come back!"

But that was nothing to hearing Dick sob, moments later. "Batman, the bomb. It only disarms if my heart stops. Please, listen to me. You still have time to get yourself out of here. Batman, no! You have to go!" The cries were cut off by a harsh series of hacking coughs summoning Alfred with more medications, more muttering, more monitors.

Damian held tight to Dick's fingers through it all. A few hours later, the cries were faint as Dick's voice faded towards oblivion. He was mostly still, but still thrashed feebly from time to time. Damian rested his head against Dick's side, whispering things he barely dared admit to himself even when alone. "You mean so much to me, Richard. Please let me help..."

The next thing he knew, it was morning. Exhaustion had claimed him. Dick was pale and unmoving in the bed, and the monitors had been pulled away. He bolted up, eyes wide, fearing the worst, crying out.

Dick blinked awake, sleepily, a pained but genuine smile as he saw Damian, and then Alfred approaching with a glass of water. “Thanks, Alfie.” His voice sounded about as bad as he looked. He took a few sips of water and slumped back against the pile of pillows behind him. “Rough night, Little D? I don’t feel like being alone and you look like you could use some sleep. Wanna help?”

There was minimal grumbling as Damian gave in, curling carefully against Dick. He was still too hot, but he wasn’t shaking anymore. He was almost asleep when he heard the words whispered against his hair. “You mean so much to me, too…”

**Author's Note:**

> From a Tumblr ask, for PreciousThingsArePrecious. This is about the 3rd reworking of this, because the rest were getting away from me and turning into full blown stories I don’t have time for right now :P But now have so much behind the scenes for this. In my head it’s set sometime after your story To Pass Through This Night There were just a bunch of stupid, unrelated things coming together in this story with the worst possible timing. There was a plumbing issue at Lockhaven Prison down in Bludhaven, so they moved a bunch of the prisoners and guards to Blackgate for the week; one of those guards was Aaron Helzinger (he used to be the villain Amygdala, but he got help and was doing fairly well and was a guard in Bludhaven, and even lived in Dick’s apartment building). Things didn’t go well for him with the fear gas, especially when he saw Dick in the Nightwing gear; he remembered a smoking building and dead friends and a masked vigilante in black and blue so he punched Dick. It broke Dick’s protective facemask and knocked him into the water. He took a gasp of fear gas and then water as he went under. I pruned out all the extra details because they were bogging the story down and making it SO LONG, but I like knowing they’re there :)


End file.
